Abstract

AGUIAR, Melanie de Souza de  and  ALVES, Cássia Ferrazza. Multi-species family: a study about couples without children and pet owners. Pensando fam. [online]. 2021, vol.25, n.2, pp. 19-30. ISSN 1679-494X.

Currently, amongst the various family arrangements, the multi-species family, composed of both humans and animals are growing in the social environment. Many couples in these families appear not to want to have children or just postpone it, taking care of their pets as family members. Therefore, this research intents to help in comprehension of the motivation behind these scenarios, where couples choose not to have children and have pets instead. An exploratory and qualitative study was conducted with semi-structured interviews with eight individuals in a common-law marriage. The interviews were analyzed based on the thematic analysis. It was discovered that the couples consider pets as their family members and also some of the couples treat them as their children, but they understand the differences between having a pet and having a child. Lastly, there is a lack of research with couples with pets and without children in the Brazillian environment, so further research in this area is needed.

Keywords : Couples without children; Multi-species families.

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